Synopsis

At The Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs finds out that there have been no new customers since he put a microscopic Krusty Krab ad in the Bikini Bottom Examiner newspaper. He goes out and finds out people are buying a different newspaper called the Bottomfeeder behind the restaurant. A buyer informs Mr. Krabs that the Examiner is not interesting, whereas the Bottomfeeder is. He also learns that the stories in the Bottomfeeder are not all truthful. When a woman passes by to buy a copy, Mr. Krabs, pretending to be nice, opens the machine for her, only for him to get one for free (he opened it for her, then took one for himself) to find out they charge 25 cents per word.

Amazed at the price, Mr. Krabs decides to open his own newspaper business. The next day, SpongeBob finds out that Mr. Krabs will put him on two jobs: his normal fry cook duties and being lead reporter for the Krabby Kronicle, and is then given a badge and a camera.

After finding no interesting stories (despite a bank robbery, two fish destroying someone's boatmobile, and a monster in the background), he walks off only to find Patrick waiting for the bus. Deciding that this common event would make a juicy story, SpongeBob takes a picture of the scene, but Patrick insists that he was only watching the pole so that the next time it moves, he will be there to see it.

At the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob that his stories aren't juicy enough, and turns the story of Patrick watching a pole into Patrick marrying a pole. Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob that these are not lies, but to give the people something that they can laugh about.

After this, SpongeBob writes lies about people, which leads to Mrs. Puff losing her students, Larry being kicked out of the gym, the Chum Bucket being shut down, and Sandy's trophies being taken away. SpongeBob tries to tell a now rich Mr. Krabs to stop hurting his friends as well as his arch-nemesis, Plankton, but Mr. Krabs laughs it off, threatening to take away SpongeBob's spatula (and possibly his fry cook job) if he doesn't write more.

That night, Mr. Krabs tells him to give him the wildest story ever, so SpongeBob stays awake all night to write a story. The next day, Mr. Krabs is shocked to discover an angry mob in his restaurant. It turns out Spongebob (clearly fed up with writing lies about his friends) wrote about Mr. Krabs overworking him, forcing him to write lies that ruin other people's lives and keeping the money for himself, only caring for the money and not others. Furious at this, the angry mob comes and takes back all their money. Mr. Krabs falls to pieces, sobbing, missing his money so much that he's not even upset with SpongeBob. However, Krabs finds a single dollar that the angry mob missed and decides to use the printer to print counterfeit money, and tells SpongeBob to get him some scissors so he can start using his imagination with the printer.

The episode ends with Patrick ordering a Krabby Patty for himself and his wife, the pole.

Trivia

A book called Stop the Presses!, which is similar to this episode, was released nearly three years before this episode aired on TV.

However, the difference between this episode and the book Stop the Presses! is that SpongeBob and Patrick write truthful gossips of others rather than write bogus news of others like what Mr. Krabs did, and, at the end of the book, both SpongeBob and Patrick reform, unlike Mr. Krabs, who didn't reform at the end of this episode.

SpongeBob's classic appearance used on the title card for this episode

Despite this being a season 6 episode, the photo of SpongeBob in the newspaper on the title card shows him in his classic appearance from the firsttothird seasons rather than his season 6 appearance.

The background for the title card is the same background used in "Krusty Krab Training Video" when SpongeBob is shown holding a mop bucket, and the Krabby Patty secret formula is about to be revealed by the episode's narrator.

The alternate title of this episode is "Krabs vs. Bikini Bottom."

The Sewer Monster that appears in this episode looks similar to a water bear (tardigrade), except this one has six arms, purple skin, and a large size.

The two fish were influenced by what SpongeBob wrote in the paper and thought that Sandy was a dumb mammal. However, in "Overbooked," many fish were in Sandy's treedome and knew her already. Also, in "Texas," many of the fish knew Sandy and had a party for her. It is possible that this episode takes place before those two.

When a lie about the Chum Bucket making food out of other fish is told, the health inspector from "Nasty Patty" appears.

Also, the health inspector's last name is revealed in this episode.

There is a headline that reads "Plankton's Chum Made of Your Chums!". In the episode "Spongicus," Plankton reveals his chum is made up of whale blubber, jellyfish squeezings, seahorse snot, and a sprinkle of anchor rust.

Since the Chum Bucket got legally shut down (until the end of the episode, that is), surely Mr. Krabs would be secure in the knowledge that the Krabby Patty secret formula is safe from Plankton. SpongeBob, in all his guilt, doesn't see it that way, neither does Mr. Krabs (due to his greed).

Mr. Krabs does a lot of illegal things in this episode, such as illegally printing money, lying about people in the newspaper, and stealing paper out of a machine without paying, although Mr. Krabs breaks the law numerous times throughout the series.

This is the second episode to mention daytime television, the first being in "Shanghaied." This term is mentioned a third while having a real appearance in "The Clash of Triton."

This is the third episode where SpongeBob is seen with a card to show his identity on his outfit. The others are "Missing Identity" and "As Seen on TV."

Cultural references

In this episode, there is a board over the Krusty Krab sign that reads "Over 8 Bajilion Served." This sign may be a reference to "Over 8 Billion Served" text on the McMeaty's sign from the Invader Zim episode "Career Day."

This could also be a reference to the McDonald's boards that read "Billions and Billions Served."

The lie where Plankton is accused of selling food made out of fish to other fish is a reference to the 1973 dystopian future film Soylent Green, where a wafer of the same name is made of human corpses. Another parody of this film is in the episode "Ditchin'."

Errors

When Mr. Krabs talks to SpongeBob in the first scene, SpongeBob's legs are not attached to his feet.

It is unknown how Mr. Krabs could have gotten the latest issue of the Examiner if that machine had not been touched in months.

When Mr. Krabs holds open the newspaper container, there is a coin slot on it, but instead of being on only one side, it's on both sides.

When Abigail Marge takes a paper out of the machine, no paper seems to be removed from the stack. This doesn't happen when Mr. Krabs drags one out.

When Mr. Krabs puts the "Press" identification badge on SpongeBob, it puts it over the belt-holder on SpongeBob. However, when it zooms in, the belt-holder can be seen to the right.

The newspaper machines are not there when SpongeBob walks into The Krusty Krab, and after Mr. Krabs takes a paper.

When Mr. Krabs walks into the Krusty Krab, saying "What a money-tastical...," there is a sticker on the Krusty Krab of a burger, but when he finishes his sentence "...day, eh, Squidward?," once entering the restaurant, the sticker is no longer there. This error also occurs in "Enemy In-Law."

When SpongeBob takes a picture of Patrick staring at the pole, he doesn't seem to be smiling. However, in the newspaper, he is seen smiling in the picture. It is possible that Mr. Krabs drew the smile on.

At first, the picture of Patrick shows him not holding the pole, but when Mr. Krabs draws a tuxedo on Patrick, he is holding it. It is possible that he drew it so Patrick looks like he's holding the pole.

When SpongeBob takes a picture of Mrs. Puff, she is facing forward, but in the newspaper picture, she is looking be hide her at the officer.

There is a closed-captioning error when Mr. Krabs says "Besides, how could a little news story possibly affect Mrs. Puff in any way?" The closed captioning says "Besides, how could a little news story possibly effect Mrs. Puff in any way?," which is not grammatically correct.

After Larry shakes hands with Frankie Billy, there is a road when the two are walking away, which does not appear in the scene until then.

In the newspaper, there are two photos of Larry and Frankie Billy, but SpongeBob takes one photo, not two.

When Larry read the newspaper, he adds an additional "gets" to the title. Likewise, when Mr. Krabs read the article about Mrs. Puff, he adds "school" to the title, reading it as "Boating School Teacher in High-Speed Chase."

When the two fish run out of Sandy's treedome, there are bubbles trailing behind them despite not being in underwater.

When Mr. Krabs throws SpongeBob to the typewriter, SpongeBob has his camera, but when he gets to the typewriter, the camera disappears.

After Mr. Krabs leaves his office for the night, and SpongeBob begins typing on the press, Mr. Krabs' office door is behind SpongeBob, but in the next shot, the door is not there.

The last article is titled "Krabs overworks employee, reaps rewards," but when Mr. Krabs reads it, he says it as "Krabs overworks employees, reaps reward."

When the picture with Mr. Krabs shouting at SpongeBob is shown, Mr. Krabs' shirt is shown with no collar.

It's unknown how SpongeBob inserts a last picture on the newspaper article since no one ever took that picture. It is possible he got it from a hidden security camera or he used a camera with a timer.

When the Bikini Bottomites want their money back, they go into the kitchen even though all of it is in Mr. Krab's office. It is possible they walked to the office through the kitchen, but that doesn't explain why they walked back out from the kitchen.

When SpongeBob takes a picture of Patrick when he looks like he's waiting for the bus, the sign says "Bus Stop," but when Patrick arrives at the end of the episode when Mr. Krabs is printing his money, the sign says "Conch Rd."

The sign might have "Bus Stop" on one side, and "Conch Rd." on the other, and both sides are seen during the episode.

In this episode, the pole is taller than the scene, but at the end, the pole is slightly taller than Patrick.